Vegan Mofo: The Highlight of the Year!

OK, so this is not strictly about food but it is about a food festival - the 14th Annual Boston Veg Food Festival, to be specific!

It's coming up at the end of this month and this year it's extended to 2 days! Saturday Oct 31st and Sunday November 1st will see me - and My Beloved - in Boston living the life. The vegan life! Because, although the organizers plump for the term 'vegetarian', the festival is vegan to the core. Dr Michael Greger will be there, as will Dr Caldwell Esselstyn and Lauren Ulm along with Zoe Weil, Emilie Hardman, stand-up comedians Myq Kaplan and Zach Sherwin, Stella Zhou and Dr Paulette Chandler.

Past favorites of mine have included Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Sarah Kramer, T. Colin Campbell and Hannah Kaminsky, so you see it is a star-studded event!

Betweeen the munching and the sampling and the learning and the meeting of new folks...oh and the munching - did I mention that?????...it is going to be an awesome weekend so, if you are near Boston, why not drop in and say 'Hi!'? For the New England area, it is the vegan highlight of the year!

Stay well and stay vegan friends! :)

Vegan MoFo: Whimsical food always tastes better....

There are all kinds of vegan cheeses on the market these days - from Vegan-Rella to Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet to Sheese, Teese, to Dr Cow and and Daiya Cheese, the sheer range is often bewildering. We really do seem to have gotten beyond the necessity of stealing the milk from baby cows to make our mozzarella!

And so with that in mind, there is no longer any reason to omit cheese from that one dish that seems to demand the gooey stuff: pizza! Unless, of course, you are eating a pie like this one:



This beautiful pie was just loaded with mushrooms, baby spinach, fire-roasted red peppers, zucchini, and tofu riccota and was good beyond words. My savvy little sister managed to snag this baby off the menu when My Beloved and I visited her in London earlier this year to celebrate our mother's birthday. The pizza was her choice from the menu of the Root-Master - a retired London double decker bus which now serves as a fantastic vegan restaurant.

Healthy, delicious, cruelty-free and whimsical...what more could you ask for?

Stay vegan, friends!

Vegan MoFo: Autumn-scented fun with pears

Great vegan food doesn't necessarily have to be complicated or time-consuming to prepare. It can be as elegant and sophisticated or as down-home and comforting as you like. Witness a dessert I made a few weeks ago during an unseasonably cold snap - a very simple but satisfying pears poached in white wine with cinnamon and nutmeg, served with a scoop of Tofutti vanilla ice cream.



Warm pears, autumn-scented, with the fresh creaminess of vanilla....easy, delicious, vegan.

Need I say more?

Eat well and stay vegan, friends! :)